First of the season

[boneaddict]

Cool. Do you ever bust out the long bow anymore? I recall seeing many older pictures in the deer thread. I remember seeing at least a few and then boom no more Boneaddict and his five point mule bucks every year.

I put myself on a self imposed freeze.   I believed strongly enough that the herd could use a break.  Once I get a feel that things are back on track, I’ll hunt again.  I figured it was hypocritical of I’m saying how bad things are then I go out and shoot one.   In the meantime I have been playing catch and release.

[Buckhunter24]

Thats a cool buck. Do you pick up many sheds of the deer that you photo?

[fishnfur]

Superb photo Bone!

[OutHouse]

Cool. Do you ever bust out the long bow anymore? I recall seeing many older pictures in the deer thread. I remember seeing at least a few and then boom no more Boneaddict and his five point mule bucks every year.

I put myself on a self imposed freeze.   I believed strongly enough that the herd could use a break.  Once I get a feel that things are back on track, I’ll hunt again.  I figured it was hypocritical of I’m saying how bad things are then I go out and shoot one.   In the meantime I have been playing catch and release.

Right on, shows a lot of restraint. It was a few years before I joined this site that I started to see how bad the mule deer were doing (only been doing big game for about 10 years). Then I joined the site and saw all the commentary on the herd and I really started to feel the same way you do. Took a mule doe in the last half of archery one year and after that decided I would do my best to not pursue mule deer at all and focus on whitetails. That was about six years ago and have take five whites since. When I was kid up in the Methow it was common to see 20 different mule bucks each summer around my folks' place. Now we are lucky to see two during the summer months.